


Mozart Oboe Concerto in C major, K. 314

by gladdecease



Category: Nodame Cantabile
Genre: F/M, Future Fic, Jealousy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-02
Updated: 2011-03-02
Packaged: 2017-10-16 01:23:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/166936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gladdecease/pseuds/gladdecease
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It hardly feels like a year has passed, and at the same time feels like it's been much longer.  So much has changed since he was last at Saint-Malo, and here he is again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mozart Oboe Concerto in C major, K. 314

**Author's Note:**

> Most of this was written back in April of 2009. Naturally, storylines did not go the way I expected them to back then, but I like this bit of that nonexistent future. And damn it, Kuroki/Tanya deserves some fic, even from me!

It hardly feels like a year has passed, and at the same time feels like it's been much longer. So much has changed since he was last at Saint-Malo, and here he is again. Still, Kuroki thinks, picking out a bluer blue-green costume than last time, it's nice to revisit. Coming back gives him a chance to look at how things have changed, a contrast between then and now. He watches Megumi-chan deciding between two styles of costume and frowns at the bags under her eyes.

There have been some changes worse than others, but Megumi-chan is nothing if not determined. Chiaki-kun might call it stubborn, or pig-headed, if he were in a particularly bad mood. Being close to both of them can lead to long silences, but he'd rather have that than not have either of them.

"Yasu! What are you doing?"

The sound of her voice makes him smile reflexively; he pushes it down and turns around. "What do you mean? I'm picking out my costume, like the butler told us to."

"I don't mean that." Tanya frowns indignantly, crossing her arms. "Why are you picking an outfit like that? It's such a gloomy color."

"Huh?" Kuroki makes a show of studying the costume. "But doesn't it suit me? A gloomy color for a gloomy guy." He smiles at her knowingly. She flushes, torn between embarrassment, anger, and humor.

This is one of the better changes, he thinks.

* * *

And yet, he reflects later, one of the worst.

Tanya is talking with the youngest of the lord's sons. Kuroki remembers him from last year - he's the one they'd paid to see Megumi-chan's concert, the so-called cheapskate. The one that had made Tanya declare how much she hated Frenchmen.

Looking at them now, _talking_ so freely, he wonders if her performance last year had an effect on the son. He remembers it being emotional, suiting the piece, but to affect him this much? Kuroki, watching Tanya laugh and throw her head back, spots a familiar looking necklace around her neck that he hadn't seen earlier, and feels something harsh burning at his sensibilities, destroying his calm. Something about this scene is wrong.

"Kuroki-kun, are you alright?" It's Megumi-chan, still done up in full costume and wig, looking at him strangely.

He forces a smile. "I'm fine, Megumi-chan. Why do you ask?"

Somewhere behind him, Tanya laughs exaggeratedly, and he twitches.

Comprehension sweeps across Megumi-chan's face, and she smiles. "I see, I see. Kuroki-kun, do you want to perform Mozart's oboe concerto with Nodame?"

"What?"

"You played it back with R☆S orchestra, right? Nodame heard a lot of their rehearsals, so she knows it pretty well."

"But you just had a recital - "

" - it's no problem, Kuroki-kun! Besides, Nodame thinks Tanya needs a reminder. Though, Kuroki-kun, you should be more forward yourself."

And now Kuroki is completely lost. "What are you talking about?"

Megumi-chan tilts her head to one side. "What, you don't know it yet? Kuroki-kun, you..." She pauses. "Ah, maybe Nodame shouldn't tell you. It's best if you figure these things out for yourself, after all. It makes the wait worthwhile." Her voice drifts off toward the end of her confusing speech, her gaze resting somewhere in middle distance. Kuroki thinks of Chiaki-kun, remembers the strange flirtations that had gone on between him and Megumi-chan the first time they'd been here. He sympathizes with Megumi-chan, what she's lost or given up since then.

Then the implication hits him, and he reddens, stiff with shock. "Megumi-chan, you aren't saying that Tanya and I...!"

She just smiles at him, and he's vividly reminded that Megumi-chan had been the one to set them up in the first place, on that nightmarish date.

He also remembers how determined Tanya had been to help him practice for his Roux-Marlet audition once he turned away from her to Megumi-chan.

It may be cruel, and it's probably unnecessary - he could just talk to Tanya himself, get this sorted out without any drama - but he thinks it would be nice - fitting, even - for Tanya to feel a small portion of what he does right now.

"Okay, Megumi-chan. Let me set up my oboe, and we'll perform."

* * *

His Mozart has always been a bit unsteady. Technically sound, but too serious, then almost too frivolous. Megumi-chan had quite an influence on his music, at that point. However, even after he'd adapted his in-love Mozart and used it at the performance, it had continued to change. If his first Mozart with the R☆S orchestra was dull silver, and if his in-love Mozart was pink, now it was more like tempered steel. Refined, but still not quite a true Mozart.

If he'd played this piece just a few hours ago, when there'd been no lord's son _talking_ with Tanya, who knows what it would have sounded like.

Right now, he thinks, it's definitely steel. Megumi-chan playing alongside him, being especially attentive of what his playing lacks and adding to it, is a comforting balance. By himself he would have been too harsh for the lord's tastes, but together they sound... well, _pink_. A light, delicate silver-pink.

This was how he'd always wanted to play Mozart.

He makes sure not to look at Tanya, keeping his focus on Megumi-chan and his performance. If she's mad, that's one thing. If she's enjoying the music, that's another. But if she's still talking to the lord's son, not even _looking_ -

Well. He might stop playing and do something crazy, and this party isn't the time or place for confrontations.

The lord praises them both, loudly and exuberantly. Kuroki feels he should be more embarrassed, but given what he's seen this strange Mozart fan do before, he really isn't. And that he still can play this piece well is somehow a comfort.

So is the pleased look on Megumi-chan's face as she glances sideways at him as she stands up from the piano bench. She nods her head, and he glances in that direction.

The look on Tanya's face makes something squirm in his stomach. It's uneasiness, he thinks. He's never been able to pin her reactions down; he has no idea what will come next, what she might do.

He feels like they spend the rest of the night staring at each other, that surely somebody, anybody, _every_ body must have noticed them. It's probably less than a minute before the butler asks Tanya which piece she'll be performing, and he quickly lets Megumi-chan pull him away. He doesn't want to make a scene. He knows better than that.

Tanya's Mozart is incredible. It's not the sorrowful piece she played last year with such intensity, but a lighter one, happier. She doesn't stop smiling once as she plays; Kuroki spends the entire time watching her, so he knows.

He also knows that smile isn't for him. It's not for the performance, or for herself, either. Somehow, he _knows_ that smile is for the lord's son. Maybe he told her it was his favorite sonata. Maybe the emotion she's putting into the piece is expressive of her feelings for him. Maybe Kuroki's just going mad, but maybe he's not.

He's driving himself crazy with all these maybes.

 _She's_ driving him crazy.

He watches her play until the song ends, then leaves quietly. It's not polite, but he doesn't want to wait and worry over who the first person she looks at is. If it's him, or if it's not.

* * *

Still, quiet as he may be, Megumi-chan notices. She follows him after a moment of indecision, a quiet, questioning "Kuroki-kun?" on her lips the moment they're out the door.

"I was in love with you once, Megumi-chan." She gasps, a strange little sound. One of the things he hadn't quite noticed about her until France. "When we first met. You didn't know?"

"Back then, Nodame was so focused on Sh - on Senpai that she couldn't have." Kuroki murmurs something understanding as the hurt flashes across her face.

"Just now, with me telling you, you were shocked?" She nods. "I didn't know Tanya liked me until she... she kissed me." Another cry of surprise. Kuroki blushes, glances aside. "I spent so much time trying to figure out _why_ she liked me that I didn't notice when _I_ started to like _her_. And then I spent so much time wondering: did I like her for who she was, or because I knew she liked me? And now, when I'm finally sure, she gives up on me."

Megumi-chan's eyes soften sympathetically. "Kuroki-kun, that's not - "

"It hurt a lot, to realize that I'd fallen in love with you, when you were in love with someone else. But knowing that Tanya did have feelings for me, and that I spent too much time figuring out my own - " He cuts himself off, lost for words. "I can't explain how much more it hurts. And I can't just accept it, this time. I had a chance once, I know I did. With you, I never did, but with Tanya..." He sighs. "And now I can't look at her around any other man without remembering that it could have been me with her instead."

"Kuroki-kun..."

"Yasu."

He knows who it is without turning around; knows her voice far too well by now. He doesn't want to turn around, see any of a thousand different faces all saying the same thing - "you're right, it's too late, I'm sorry," - but he does anyway.

And forgets how to breathe.

" _Tanya_."


End file.
